Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.

Iowa News

Health care still a growing employment field
Jobs in health care will be plentiful in the future, area professionals said. “It’s about an aging population,” said Donna Orton, chairwoman of the health division at North Iowa Area Community College. Medical assistants, nurses, physical therapist assistants, medical laboratory technicians and radiology technologists are in demand now and will be in the future, Orton said. (Mason City Globe Gazette)

Caring dedication
Michelle Stapp is a busy person. That word might be an understatement. As the Emergency Services Nurse Manager, she supervises not only the emergency department but she also oversees the satellite clinics in Jewel and Stratford, connected to Hamilton Hospital. (Webster City Freeman-Journal)

Mother, daughter prove volunteering is a family affair
Mother-daughter relationships may not always be the smoothest. That’s not the case for Pat Collins of Sioux City and her daughter Jennifer Clay of Dakota Dunes, who volunteer together in a variety of areas and for numerous fundraisers at Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City. (Sioux City Journal)

Treasurer Commends Mercy Hospital’s Effort to Increase Awareness of Saving for College
Two babies born at Iowa City’s Mercy Hospital win a $1,000 College Savings Iowa account in less than two years. (Treasurer’s Office Press Release)

U.S. News

White House defends health care legislation despite Senate loss
The Obama administration tried Sunday to steady itself and its top domestic priority after last week’s stunning Massachusetts Senate upset, as a top White House official vowed to move ahead with comprehensive healthcare legislation because “the underlying elements of it are popular and important.” (Los Angeles Times)

Paring back health care not so easy
Trimming back the 2,000-page, trillion-dollar Democratic health care bills to the parts that average folks understand and like may not be as simple as it sounds. (Associated Press)

Minnesota safety-net hospital asks for help, gets no takers
Cash-strapped Hennepin County Medical Center asked other Minneapolis-area counties for help to cover the medical bills for the uninsured destitute patients who live in their counties. While the counties are sympathetic, they don’t intend to raise property taxes to cover indigents’ medical bills in Hennepin County. The other counties say it’s a problem for the state of Minnesota. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Jacksonville gobbles health care, but it’s still no Miami
Jacksonville seniors use 11 percent more medical services than the national average, but don’t appear to be any healthier for it, according to a recent report that sheds light on variations in health care use. (Florida Times-Union)

Medicare doctors waning in rural Arizona
Seniors in rural Arizona towns and cities with a graying population, such as Yavapai County’s Prescott and Prescott Valley, are facing what health officials acknowledge is a troubling trend: doctors who refuse to see new Medicare patients. (Arizona Republic)

Critical condition
Families fight with insurance carriers to get loved ones desperately needed treatment. (Dateline NBC)